This unprecedented crisis unfolds against many existing challenges including persistent gender inequalities, existing inequalities in access to health, weak health infrastructures, and a high risk of secondary disasters in the region. COVID-19 presents a range of contextual challenges, that will have a greater impact on the most vulnerable, such as for migrant workers, indigenous and ethnic minorities, refugees and internally displaced peoples, migrants, urban slum-dwellers, and people working in the informal sector.4 As with all crises, women and children are disproportionately impacted. The purpose of this Rapid Gender Analysis during COVID-19 is to analyse and better understand the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on women, men, girls, boys and specific at-risk groups in the Mekong region.

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